A California family made $7.6-million by taking used cans and bottles from Arizona, where they’re worthless, and recycling them in California, where they fetch between 5-10 cents each. Prosecutors have now accused the family of recycling fraud.
The family took advantage of California’s CRV programme – When someone purchases a plastic or aluminum bottle in California, they typically pay an extra 5 to 10 cents in “California Redemption Value,” or CRV, which the consumer can get back by returning the items to one of the state’s more than 1,200 recycling centers.
In effect California consumers pay a 10c tax (deposit) on all aluminium cans. That in turn funds the recycling programme.
Arizona has no such programme so the family took their Arizona aluminium cans (not taxed) to California to redeem.
Last year, six people were charged in a similar Arizona-to-California recycling operation that prosecutors said netted more than $10 million by fraudulently redeeming more than nine tons of empty beverage containers.
At least 93 people in California were convicted of recycling fraud between 2010 and 2019, according to a report by the nonprofit Consumer Watchdog.